Chapter Text
Prologue
"It's a bit boring. The one with heroes had more... flair, I think."
Ju' blinked and then his nose crinkled in amusement. He closed the book he had been reading her with laughter.
"Is that so? What would you change, then?"
Her legs crossed over the log of wood she had been sitting on, Seiros huffed. She stood and twirled her little yellow dress.
"Dances!" She exclaimed. "Balls! Masquerades! There's nothing quite as fun as secret identities, you know?"
"It's a love story," Ju' laughed, "between two childhood friends. How would they not know who the other is? They'd recognize each other instantly."
"Well it can work with a bit of imagination! If the one she loves cannot know her identity, don't you think it would be an interesting dynamic?"
"Interesting, maybe," Ju' said before interrupting himself for a few seconds, something he often did. He was talking with his lover, she knew, though what Yubel had to say was always a mystery to her. "I'm not the one writing those stories," he ended up adding with a smile, "but what about another idea: imagine two people who never met, but who are on opposite sides. For whatever reasons. Yet, these two strike a friendship, and maybe, maybe, fall in love."
"That would be sad," she frowned, "but also unlikely. Enemies rarely get to know each other."
"Yes, but that would be an interesting dynamic, don't you think?"
The little girl scrunched up her nose, eyes shining.
"Well you know me. I like happy stories better. The ones you and Cichol read me."
Ju' opened his mouth, but didn't have time to say a word. Uncle Jun's voice came from behind him. Dark hair on his head, face closed and eyes squinting as if trying to look intimidating. He never could. Uncle Jun's kindness was easy to see every single second of the day.
"What are you wasting her time with again, slacker?"
She jumped in happiness, seeing him, hugging his leg.
"Don't do that you little twerp," grumbled Uncle Jun, "I know you're just happy because I'm bringing you to town with me."
"That doesn't change that I like you," she answered, sticking her tongue.
"Stop acting so charming," he grumbled though his eyes were soft, "we need to be quiet."
She waved Ju' goodbye and skipped after her nice uncle. Finnan and Leachlainn were already waiting, Finnan's soft features were frowning, an unusual expression on his usually jovial face. His twin, Leachlainn, was frowning too, but that, however, was pretty usual. Seiros waved happily at her brothers, hoping to untwist these features. Finnan smiled sweetly, though his brother didn't change expressions.
They walked quietly behind Uncle Jun and Seiros, their voices mumbling in the silence, urgent and worried and so she couldn't help but try to listen.
"Maybe you went too far." Finnan was mumbling. "Some are calling us tyrannical."
"I didn't," Leachlainn was answering with a frown, "humans are frail, I never pushed too much. Even when I tried to push them to become stronger... Plus, you know I left, centuries ago, the moment I realized it wouldn't work that way and that if I kept going, then yes, I would go too far!"
"But they're not calming down," Finnan hissed, "we used to be able to speak publicly with them, but these guys, those who call themselves the chosen of Agartha... They've been calling for our heads, they are acting as if everything wrong in the world comes from us, even things as usual and normal as thunderstorms."
"And it has nothing to do with me in particular," Leachlainn answered with a grumble, "these are just fanatics who have been gaining traction recently, who hate us for being as powerful as they can only be thanks to Mother's knowledge. They feel threatened by our power and no amount of reassurance that we don't intend to do anything to them can make them stop. We just need to lie low and keep quiet until it goes away. It always does."
"I hope you're right," Finnan sighed, "I really do."
"Uncle Jun," Seiros mumbled, "what are they talking about."
"Nothing you should worry about. There's been... unrest, recently. People pretending your Mother doesn't exist or is a tyrant, because she's powerful and so they're scared of her and want her to lose the approval of the people."
"But... That's ridiculous!" She sputtered. "Mother is the one who came down to this star and gave them all of this knowledge! People would never have learnt magic without her!"
His lips twitched up, the vision sad, somehow.
"People are afraid of what they don't know or understand, Seiros. They can respect it or admire it, but there will always be people who fear it more. Right now, it seems fear is prevalent."
That was unfair. Seiros pouted. Mother was good and kind, mother had already sacrificed a lot just to protect the inhabitants of this star. That they would be so ungrateful they'd be afraid of her was simply awful!
"Is this why no one can know who we are?" she mumbled.
"Yes. That is exactly why."
"But maybe we could tell them, you know? That mother is good and would never hurt them!"
"Certainly not!"
She jumped and uncle Jun lowered his voice, looking around anxiously.
"No, no, Seiros. You might find people who are willing to listen, but mostly, we'd risk attracting the attention of those who would never do so. They'd hunt us. They'd hunt you, because you're smaller and more vulnerable than we are. And if they harmed you? Then they would also prove that anyone who feared your mother was right."
"What do you mean?"
"You're her baby, Seiros. You're her youngest, her last born. You're just a child. Sothis can sacrifice a lot for this star and for humans, but do not think that one who would harm her baby girl would be safe."
Seiros couldn't help but chuckle softly and nodded wisely.
"Okay. I will not make any noise. No one will know who we are!"
"Good," Uncle Jun said, "luckily, you're blonde so they shouldn't look too close..."
He didn't get to talk much more, for suddenly, the sky exploded.
She could feel it in her bones, deafening and violent, something wrong and depraved, something howling in devilish joy as it took. Uncle Jun took her in his arms in a second, Leachlainn and Finnan looke about to transform, horror on their faces.
Far away, the rumble and crashing cry of an explosion broke. An explosion unlike any Seiros had ever heard of.
"Uncle Jun?" she whimpered.
"We're leaving," he said, voice terrified, "Boys, go look at what it was."
Between the screaming and running of the humans in town, they rushed out and she watched her brothers transform and fly towards the explosions. She almost wanted them to stay here, fearful tears rushing down her face as she started being scared, scared that whatever was there would hurt them.
When they came back, she exhaled, but their faces didn't look good either. Fear. Terror.
"We're going home," Leachlainn growled, "now!"
"What is happening?" insisted Uncle Jun.
"Light," Finnan answered, eyes wide with horror, "some people have turned Light into a weapon."
Seiros, at that time, didn't know what it meant. She just knew her brothers and her uncle were scared, and so she was too, like children often are by what frightens adults. Because adults were fearless and strong and supposed to protect children like her.
She understood later, months later, when the skies fell on them like stars of destruction screaming in delight while destroying everything living. She understood as Mother held her against her, trembling not in fear but in anger and despair as she did all she could to preserve the world, as Ju' and the others tried to push that Light back, the one that was unleashed upon everything living, ravaging the earth and the land they called home.
A few days later, Mother left her to Uncle Johan while she went away, grim faced. When she came back, she looked devastated, tired. She hugged her, told her that she couldn't see Ju' for some time now. And then left on a journey. To restore what had been destroyed.
While Mother was away, they buried Ju'. He was asleep, wounded and exhausted after saving the world, but they feared some would take advantage of it if they found him in that state. So they buried him and Seiros, tearing up, remembered saying he deserved a throne, like the one Mother often napped on.
Some, like Uncle Shou, smiled at that, snickered. They comforted her, assuring her that he'd be back soon enough, joking about how he'd react to waking up after sitting down for months or years. Aunt Asuka chastised them, but her eyes were glinting and she didn't oppose it either. They all acted as if it could be a hilarious prank. They were trembling a bit, all shaken by what had happened recently. It was the first time Seiros had seen them smile ever since, and despite how they made fun of her ideas, she couldn't be mad when they were happy again.
They buried him on a throne, it was a strangely funny burial. A 'see you soon' to a friend they were sure wouldn't stay sleeping for too long.
Then Mother came back and barely had time to hug her before falling asleep too. Mother had never fallen asleep for as long as Seiros had been alive, she remembered being so scared. Her siblings had to comfort her, assure her that it wasn't the first time, that just like Ju', she'd wake up. Soon. She just needed to restore her strength.
Ju' had fallen from exhaustion after defeating the thing that had been destroying the world. Mother had done the same after restoring this land and allowing life to flourish again.
And so, they buried Mother too. On her favourite napping throne, because she actually liked sleeping on it, and it would allow her to make fun of Ju' if he woke up and complained about his own. They buried her in her Sacred place, in the mountain at the center of the continent. A lush, beautiful place where Seiros had lived most of her life.
With Mother sleeping, her siblings, uncles and aunts came back together. Most had gone away, living their own lives, as people often did when they grew up. But what had happened to the world had shaken them all. Whatever life they had made for themselves, it had been torn apart by the way the world had exploded. By that Light some humans had been using. First on each other. Then on Mother and Seiros’ siblings.
They were stronger together. The world was only starting to live again. Wisdom dictated they stay together. Discrete, living life slowly until their leaders came back to consciousness. And so they simply stayed there. Not in the Mountain itself, no, it was too small for their numbers, but the Canyon close to it. Zanado, a place no straggler would usually find, where they could simply live in peace without being disturbed or disturbing anyone. Close enough to Mother that she'd find them the moment she woke, big enough to accomodate all of them.
It became home.
And Seiros grew.
Yet, by their standards, she was still a child when Nemesis came.
She didn't know his name, at the time. She wasn't even near the place where he started his slaughter. She just heard a howl of rage, one she knew well even though she hadn't heard it recently. She heard uncle Ryou as he attacked in fury and grief.
Much later, she'd realize the first one Nemesis had killed had been his younger brother.
At the time, however, all she knew was screaming. She heard yells and grunts of pain and horror. She heard Uncle Misawa scream to 'get the kids out'. She remembered seeing Kenzan transforming, holding Seraphina, Seiros' infant niece. She remembered seeing the blade, dislocating atrociously as it flashed into the air and, so suddenly it almost felt unreal, piercing through the child. Seraphina didn't make a sound as she died, but Kenzan's scream of anguish tore through the air, with deadly certainty, finally pushing Seiros to move.
She remembered looking at the one wielding that horrible weapon, in shock, at that gigantic man who was already walking through massive bodies and for sure, her siblings, behind him, were just pretending to have lost. She remembered seeing some of them fleeing as she tried to run, but the weapon, fast as lightning, as powerful as the wrath of the Goddess, came after them every time. She remembered the bite of the blade as it tore through her, she remembered her own yell of pain almost as if it hadn’t come from her, echoing in her ears, neverending, a prelude to the pain that would follow.
She remembered Uncle Jun howling as he took her between his talons, and the clicking of the weapon, extending towards his flying form.
With a yell of rage and determination, Uncle Jun threw her. With all of his strength.
As she fell through the skies, her chest frozen and her breath refusing to come out, she saw the weapon go through him and screamed once more.
She woke up half submerged by water. Everything was but a dull ache, but she could still feel the wounds that had closed as she slept. How long, she thought feebly, weakly trying to stand up from the stream where she had been laying. The fall had wounded her, she had been too shocked to think of transforming into her more resistant form. How long? How long had it been, she needed to go back! She needed to help Uncle Jun, and Uncle Ryou and the others. Maybe... Maybe Seraphina was okay, Seiros was a good healer, she could help, she could...
Desperately, she started walking.
Her legs found a bit of strength as she walked forwards, towards her home. Slowly, far too slowly. Surely, her family was looking for her, she needed to go to a more exposed place so they'd see her before she rejoined the canyon. But everywhere, the mountains of the Oghma chain kept shadowing her. Maybe she should turn. Maybe she should turn. But she didn't have the strength.
And deep inside her chest, there was that fear, probably irrational but... But what if the man was still there? What if by turning she alerted him?
When night fell on her way back, she looked at the stars and realized, her heart heavy, that a few days had passed.
She swallowed and kept walking. There was no way they had lost, she reminded herself severely. There was only one man, and Uncle Ryou never lost. Uncle Ryou never lost and he wasn't alone. They would have won!
She walked faster. Faster, ignoring how easily the sword had pierced through Uncle Jun's scales, more easily than any sword should be able to. She walked in fear, wondering what it meant, a memory at the edge of her mind. Her mother, holding her against her body and promising her everything would be alright as her power thrummed through the world.
She didn't know what it meant. But she knew it scared her.
When she finally arrived home, there was nothing but blood.
At first, she barely even saw the strange men, she just stared at the blood and the corpses, whimpering against her hand in horror. She walked, in a daze, and it was just some strange instinct, maybe luck, maybe the wish to stop looking at that terrible spectacle that had her hiding behind a rock when they turned her way.
Petrified, too shocked to do anything, she watched them, as they hacked her family's corpses to pieces. As they took their blood and flesh, as they tried to sever their bones until they succeeded, as they seized their hearts, smugness in the careful way they held them.
It took days, as they changed that horrible mass grave into a land covered in red, and nothing else. And she watched in horror, from her hiding point, unable to do anything more.
The murderer came back once it was all done, mentioning how he'd bring those offerings to his followers. By his side, there was a sword. That sword. The one that had killed her friends and family and she wanted to howl and kill him.
But she stayed frozen and unable to act as she stared. Stared at that sword.
It was bone. But not any bone, no, if it managed to pierce so easily through her brethren's scales, then...
The moment she found an opportunity, she ran. Ran straight towards the Sacred Place where they had hidden Mother as she slept, tears in her eyes as she begged anyone and anything to let her be wrong, while knowing that if she was right, then chances were that no one was listening.
Mother's body was missing from the tomb.
But the dark spot that covered the throne didn't lie about what had happened to her.
Seiros barely remembered her reaction. She knew she had to have wailed and cried, if only because when she found her bearings again, her face and eyes burnt with the salt of tears and because she had lost her voice, as one does after screaming for hours.
She wailed and screamed and raged and cried in horror and despair.
She stayed there for days, maybe months, time didn't matter anymore. If they had come back, they might have found her too, but at the time, she didn't care anymore. She just wanted to cry and roll into a ball as the weight of loss and grief crushed her to the ground, unable to move.
She stayed in front of that empty throne. For so long.
Until, beneath the grief and anguish, something started stirring.
Anger.
Fury.
Rage.
Mother’s voice, humming at her ears. She could swear it was true, she heard her, mumbling at her, comforting. Telling her to put an end to the chaos that had embraced the land.
Until one day, she finally stood up, her eyes dry at last. She turned away and walked West.
West, towards the last city she had visited before that fateful day. To the one place where she knew she'd find humans, like those who had murdered her own. And these humans would help her, she swore to herself. They'd tell her who it was who had killed her people. They'd help her find them.
And when she found them?
She'd kill every last one of them.
Ah.
Who are we kidding, everyone these days knows this is not how the story ends.
Despite how determined to extract vengeance the last born of Nabatea was, the truth was that there was nothing like misery to sap the red-hot fury coursing through your veins away from you.
And in the towns she crossed, there was nothing Seiros saw more than misery.
As the Light set ruin to the world, Mother only had the energy to bring life back to it. There was no time to find survivors and help them settle in some semblance of community.
The last town Seiros had visited wasn't there anymore. The closest thing to it was some dirty hamlet, barely held together by a dozen families who held on thanks to what little food they could scavenge and hunt from a forest that did not exist last time she had gone there. They told her about the wars up North, and how they hoped it wouldn't extend here. They told her about towns, if she kept going West. They gave her new clothes when they saw how ruined hers were and told her not to worry about them.
For a while, Seiros had kept walking. After a few days, she had turned back, feeling like there must have been something she could have done for these people. Or at least ask them more about that unknown world she had to discover.
She found the place burnt to the ground by the fires of war.
Seiros kept walking and learning. And as she walked, her determination changed. She learnt what she searched for. But she didn't walk North, towards the war immediately anyway. She didn't exact revenge on people who would not have had the might nor the spirit to take anything from her anyway. No, she decided as she walked, stronger and stronger, healing light in her steps. She wouldn't take anything from these people who had done nothing to her. They were not responsible for her pain.
They were lost, beaten back by incessant wars and violence, their eyes dull and desperate. They were devoid of hope for a better future.
And so, she decided firmly, she'd guide them. She'd make sure they all knew they were there thanks to Mother, and she'd show them how to honour her sacrifice. By living their lives to the fullest. By fighting for a better today and a better tomorrow.
In what would later be known as Enbarr, she performed miracles, she healed the sick and walked with naked feet on burning grounds, she knelt in mud to give water to the dying, she refused to let misery have its way.
And all the while, she let her desire for revenge simmer. She'd have it, one day. But all things came at the right time. Rushing to her death, leaving those people who depended on her, was useless. She would take care of those who had become her people, she would let her anger give her strength, but it wouldn't be the one thing guiding her.
She'd guide them towards a better life, imitating the one guiding hand she had been shown. She'd be there for them, instead of her mother. If the opportunity for revenge showed itself, then she'd seize it. If time decided to rip it from her fingers, then so be it.
And if it didn't, well.
She'd have it herself. One day. Whenever the time would be right.
And despite History later telling another tale, she did have that revenge.
This is not that story.
This is not the story of a righteous revenge against a mass-murderer, one who wanted a world dominated by the strong. No, this is the story of what came after. What came in the years that followed the Fall of the Fell King Nemesis.
This is the story of not just Seiros, but also some of the warriors who followed the King. This is the story of their role in Seiros' desire for revenge and what they made with their life.
This story is also about the Elites, the god slayers who were later blessed by the Saint herself.
This is the story of Seiros, yes, but also of Fraldarius, Gloucester, Lamine, and Riegan.